NE FLORIDA - Jacksonville area

I'm wanting to move there and start a lawn service. I will be mowing, trimming, edging, blowing - nothing more...nothing less.

I have a few questions for you guys already in the area:

1) Is there enough work to go around? With that, I mean will it be fairly easy to find enough work the first year in the business?

2) How many accounts do you think I could get the first year?

3) What's the average size yard that you service? And how long does it take you?

I know Jacksonville is a huge city - I don't mind driving all over to do work the first year, but I would like to stay in the Orange Park/Mandarin area. Is this possible to find all my work in those two places?

Thanks Jacksonville for taking time to read this. Any help or bit of advice would be greatly appreciated. Looking forward to hearing from everyone.

I live in Jax and have been in business for 3 years here.
Yes.. getting business here is very competitive. I still don't have all the accounts I would like. It is possible with a lot of advertising.
I do get out bid alot. You do have a lot people here that will do it for next to nothing. There are alot of lawn businesses here. I don't want to discourage you, it can be done. Jax is a big area. I do believe there is enough business for everyone. Getting your name out there and doing a good job is what will get you the work. I wish you all the best.

Well.... I currently have only 2 employees with 50 clients.
I am shooting for 50 more in the next two seasons. I can do it with a lot of work. My main problem here is being out bid. The average lawn is $30-35 not including hedges. I still get outbid alot by guys who only charge $20 to do all. It's really annoying. After reading through the other treads, I think that happens to everyone.The houses here also have a big turn over in sales because property value goes up so much. I've lost 3 so far due to sale of home. There are also a lot of cheap people here. Do when I want toos.
I don't go for that. Once a month and they only want to pay $35.00. Are you planning on doing contracts?

WOW!!!! Sounds like you are doing really good. I would love to have 50 accounts. Anyways, I live in Missouri right now, but I'm planning on moving to Jax soon. I'm not sure about the contracts. What do you do? Around here no one would go for the contract idea, but of course we only mow 6 or so months. How often do you usually mow down there?

You say you have 50 accounts. I was just wondering what type of accounts. Are they say 30 min yards? or more? or less? Around here you're lucky if you can get a yard done in an hour b/c there is so many trees and things to trim around.

I always thought the homes in Jax area were nice clean yards with little to trim around. Am I right?

Well, I'll be looking forward to hearing back from you. I appreciate all the helpful info you have given me.

Actually people here love trees and lots of landscaping. The lots I have are mostly $30-35 lots. take about 15-30 minutes to do.
I don't do conctracts either no one here would go for it. I do more of a verbal agreement thats worked real well for me. I usually do 42 cuts a year. Weekly during the spring and summer and bi in the fall and winter months so if a lawn is a $30 cut then I take $30x42=$1260 divided by 12months = $105 a month. So whatever your service price x 42 divided by 12= your monthly service fee. They seem to think they are getting a little bit of a break they always know what there balance is and I make money year round without losing during the winter. They are paying 12 monthly equal installments for my services. Now I also have it when I tell them that if they decide to cancell during the winter cause they don't want to pay I go and back charge them for all the services that I did do and they didn't pay for. Have not had that happen yet.

I have not heard of anyone else charging like this. But it works for me.

It is very competitive here. I have lost a lot of accounts because people are cheap. I was doing a Seafood restaurant here and he only wanted to be done every other week. The problem was he was right on the highway so all the garbage was in his lawn. I told him the price was going to 45.00 a cut he said no way. The garbage alone took 30 minutes to pick up. The lawn was so over grown it took 50 minutes to cut. It was a small place. He said the lawn never looked better but would not pay the price. So he hired a bum to do it. I mean that literally. Will work for food guy.
As far as coming and making a lot you first year it would take a lot work to get it. I am just now getting to where I want to be and it took me 3 years. Word of mouth is what really gets it. Most people here are just like the Seafood restaurant don't want to pay. Mowing gets done easily if you have a rider or a sulky with two men. All I can really say is it takes good hard work and a lot of luck. Every one wants something for free.

I run my business out of Orange Park, FL with some accts just outside OP in Jax. I could write about this forever because I have so much to share with you. This post only holds a certain amount of characters, so I will write over a few posts.

I can give you a lot of good info, but listen to everyone's opinion, that's how you learn. mower_babe knows her s**t. She definitely knows what she's doing. You don't find many small lco's starting up and doing it the way it's supposed to be done, so early.

Just wanted to let ya know I found your post and I'll start my reply in a minute. later!